Corruption worse over last five years: Survey

JAKARTA (JP): A majority of Indonesians living in big cities think that corruption is getting worse, according to a survey by the Center for the Study of Development and Democracy.

The survey, which was released yesterday, found that nearly 63 percent of people polled in Jakarta, Surabaya and Medan felt that corrupt practices had increased over the last five years.

The respondents gave an even bigger thumbs down to the government's drive to eradicate corruption, with a staggering 94.1 percent saying that the efforts were "unsatisfactory".

"People are skeptical about what the government has done," Rustam Ibrahim, who led the research team, said.

The center, a unit of the respected Institute for Research, Education, Economic, and Social Information, polled 995 people aged between 18 and 56 in Indonesia's three largest cities.

"This survey was conducted to find out what people at large think about corruption," chief researcher Rustam Ibrahim said during a news conference to release the poll results.

A total of 600 respondents were taken from Jakarta, 250 from Surabaya, and 145 from Medan.

Of the respondents, 497 were men and 498 women.

Their education ranged from elementary school (17 percent), junior high school (16 percent) and senior high school (46.6 percent) to college (10.8 percent) and university (9.6 percent).

When asked to identify the first thing that came to mind at the mention of corrupt practices, 49.9 percent said misuse of state money, 34.9 percent said misuse of power and only 6.2 percent stated bribery.

"Our survey is similar to the ones conducted abroad such as the one by Business Traveler magazine and PERC," Ibrahim said.

The Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd (PERC) has rated Indonesia as the most corrupt country in the world in its latest survey released early this year.

The majority of respondents (74.1 percent) said the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP), and inspectorate generals -- all state bodies in charge of fighting corruption -- "had yet to perform their duties well".

Of those surveyed, 87.6 percent suggested an independent anticorruption body be set up to eradicate the practice.

When asked to identify the main causes of corruption, 57.4 percent identified "a rotten mentality", 19 percent blamed "lax law enforcement", 11.5 percent cited "low salary" (for civil servants), and 10.1 percent said "poor supervision".

The respondents felt that given a bad mentality, the oath of office that government workers take when assuming their job is ineffective in preventing them from engaging in corruption.

The majority, or 74.4 percent, of the respondents also felt that all senior government officials must declare their wealth and this information should be made available to the public at large.

President Soeharto in March asked members of his new cabinet to declare their wealth to him but this information is only available by a court order in connection with investigations and lawsuits on corruption that might arise.

Most of the respondents said corruption could be eradicated if the government was more serious in enforcing the laws, and government leaders set good examples for their subordinates.

Respondents differed on whether increasing the salary of civil servants would help curb corruption but "it is not seen as a panacea", Ibrahim said.

Those polled were asked to define whether certain practices were corrupt or not. The scenarios included:

* an individual official in a subdistrict office asking for extra money to process residents' ID cards

* a judge taking a bribe from a defendant for a lighter sentence

* a banker asking for commission for arranging a loan

* a government official asking for commission for securing a project

* an employee of an electricity or telephone company asking for extra money for his services.

The case of a judge taking a bribe ranked the highest (65.4 percent), followed by the subdistrict officer (64.7 percent), the bank officer (59.3 percent) and the government official (6.2 percent).

None of the respondents felt that an employee of a telephone or electricity company who asked for extra money for his services was corrupt.

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent. (aan)